Monday, September 5, 2011

Underground Dinner with Chef DAT

Chef DAT introducing each & every course.

This past weekend Ty and I had the chance to FINALLY dine with one of Dallas' finest chefs, Chef David Anthony Temple- better known by his following as Chef DAT. If you haven't heard yet, Chef DAT hosts these secret Underground Dinners that feature 5-12 courses of inventive dishes that he preps himself (along with his A team). You pay cash, it's BYOB (or W or L), and it's a party. We signed up for the Chef's emails (which might I add, are hilar... the guy makes Honeybadger references), and low and behold, one of the dates worked out perfectly for us. Here's the scoop on what went down.

We arrived a smidge late (surprise, surprise) at the secret location in Lakewood, which happened to be a cafe that the team overhauled for the night. The theme of the night- yes I said theme, does that bring you back to the good ole' days in college?- was Gangsta Soul Food. Well, if you have met me, you may know that this was basically the most awesome sounding thing to float into my ear drums. As we walked in the doors, most everyone had already taken their seats, but that didn't stop one of Chef's helpers from grabbing our wine and opening it for us right away. We found some open seats and sipped on some Screwdrivers that were brought right to us while we waited for our first course...

Sugar Queen melon soup with goat cheese.

Sugar queen melon soup with goat cheese made of fennel and bacon from Scardello. Such an interesting blend of flavors that- in DAT's words, "were meant to just f*** your palate up." Well okay then!

Sauteed spinach greens with macaroni & cheese.

Second course: Spinach greens sauteed with white wine and elephant garlic, along with mac & cheese made of continuo & another cheese from Scardello, truffle oil (which he said was a mistake but I thought um YA!), cream, and fennel pollen (i.e. in his words, "chef's crack").

Blackened diver scallop with bleu cheese grits.

Third course: Blackened diver scallop from Boston on top of a bed of grits made with more cheese from Scardello (this time a Point Reyes bleu cheese) and micro greens. I've never been the chairman of the "I love scallops" fan board but this dish was phenomenal.

Pork tenderloin with beans, cornbread, and mushrooms.

Fourth course: Slow roasted pork tenderloin with speckled butter beans braised in white zebra tomatoes, corn bread "Chicharrón", and bourbon seared mushrooms. The cornbread was up there with the best thing we ate all night.

Huckleberry and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Fifth course: Dessert. Hell to the yah. Huckleberry and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Smelled like sweet and tasted like summer.

After the dinning was done, we partied on with our wine, our new friends, and some beats (remember the theme). All in all, it was a fantastic, highly recommended dinner slash party that was worth every penny. You can find out more & sign up for the email list on Chef DAT's website, here.